Péter Szijjártó was born on 30 October 1978 in Komárom. In 1997, he graduated from the Czuczor Gergely Benedictine Gymnasium in Győr, after which in 2002 he received a degree in Foreign Affairs from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration.
He has been a Member of Parliament for Fidesz since 2002, and in 2018 began his fifth term in Parliament. From 2006 to 2010 he was Fidesz Communications Director, the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson from 2010 to 2012, and was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations at the Prime Minister’s Office from 2012 to 2014. In June 2014 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and since 23 September 2014 has served as Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
KEEP READINGGergely Szabó has been leading MET Central Europe Sales from May 2024 as Regional Chairman, which is a new division of MET Group, established in the beginning of 2024, incorporating the operation of the former MET Central Europe and MET Gas and Energy Marketing. Prior to this, he led the MET Central Europe operations since 2019.
Gergely Szabó is responsible for the strategic and business management of the expanding regional team operating on the Central Europe Sales markets, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine, where the regional group offers a broad portfolio of natural gas and electricity products and energy efficiency services to the business partners in the SME, state-owned institutions and large industrial segments.
Gergely Szabó led MET Hungary Ltd. from 2014 to 2024. and between 2020 and May 2024 he also managed METCE Hungary, which integrated the operations of MET Hungary Ltd. and E2 Hungary Ltd. Between 2011 and 2014, he was the Managing Director of MET International, managing the Swiss subsidiary of MET Group.
Jefferson Edwards is Vice President in Shell Energy, accountable for fundamental analysis of global gas, LNG, power and low carbon energy markets. Shell Energy is responsible for the marketing and trading of gas, LNG, power and environmental products within Shell Plc. He leads a team of professionals located in Houston, London, the Hague, Dubai, Beijing and Singapore, focused on the analysis of global energy markets and sits on the leadership team of Shell LNG Marketing and Trading and Shell’s internal global energy forecasting leadership team. He is the Shell representative to the Governing Board of the Gastech conference and the Programme Committee of LNG2025.
Previously, he was General Manager for Shell Energy with responsibility for Shell’s global policy and advocacy efforts related to natural gas market development. Prior to that role, Mr. Edwards has held various commercial and strategy roles within Shell’s Exploration & Production and Integrated Gas businesses, based in London, the Hague and Singapore.
Prior to joining Shell, Mr. Edwards was Director of Asian Energy Research for Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA). He holds a MS in International Business Diplomacy from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., focused on energy security.
Teodora Georgieva has more than 20 years of experience as a strategic manager, leading significant projects in various economic sectors. Currently, Ms. Georgieva is the Executive Director of the Bulgarian side of the project company ICGB and is also a member of its Board of Directors. ICGB is responsible for the overall management and development of the gas pipeline between Greece and Bulgaria and will soon be an independent transmission system operator.
From 2012 to 2014 Teodora Georgieva was Managing Director of Nabucco Bulgaria, and before that she worked at OMV Bulgaria for 13 years, 8 of which she was Managing Director of the company, holding cluster positions for Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. Georgieva was the coordinator for Bulgaria of the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), in 2009 and 2010 she was awarded as Manager of the Year and is in the list of the top 10 Bulgarian managers.
She graduated from the University of National and World Economy and has a master’s degree in Finance. Married, with two children
KEEP READINGFranck studied Energy at the University of Rouen and received an Engineer Degree and then followed a Master of Mechanical Engineering at Cranfield University in United Kingdom. Later on, he earned an Executive Degree from the London Business School. Franck spent 25 years working for the Group Engie. Thus, he started his career at Gaz de France in the engineering department for 7 years and then moved to the Marketing and Sales with different functions in different countries such as France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Netherlands, Italy and UK before joining OMV Petrom. He was appointed member of the OMV Petrom Executive Board as of July 1, 2018 and President of FPPG as of January 30, 2019.
KEEP READINGSzabolcs Ferencz is the Chairman-CEO of FGSZ Natural Gas Transmission Ltd. since February 2019.
Previously, he held the position of SVP MOL Group Corporate Affairs supervising international and domestic governmental relations for Regulatory and Public Affairs, Strategy Development and Corporate Communications. Beforehand, Mr. Ferencz was the CEO and Country Chairman of MOL Romania, a key MOL Group subsidiary. Between 2003 – 2009 he held the position of Vice President for Corporate Communications of MOL Group and was in charge of the overall communications activities of the fast growing Group.
Since 2015 Mr. Ferencz is the Chair of the National Committee of the World Petroleum Council. He is also member of the Advisory Board of the Regional Centre for Energy Policy Research Foundation. Mr. Ferencz is an Associate at the European Round Table for Industry since 2011. He is founding partner of the SEED School for Executive Education and Development based in Budapest.
Mr. Ferencz received his MA in Economics from the University of Regensburg and pursued postgraduate studies in political science.
Vladimir Malinov is the Executive Director and Member of the Management Board of the Bulgarian gas transmission system operator Bulgartransgaz since 29th of January 2025.
Mr. Malinov joined Bulgartransgaz as Head of Legal Division in 2010. He was responsible for regulatory affairs and was deeply involved in relations with EU institutions, the company’s TSO certification and unbundling and the implementation of NCs. From March 2018 until April 2024 he was the Executive Director of the company.
From April 2024 until January 2025 Mr. Malinov was the Minister of Energy in two consecutive Caretaker Governments of the Republic of Bulgaria.
Until his appointment as Caretaker Minister, he has been also a Member of the Board of Balkan Gas Hub from January 2019, a Member of the Board of Gastrade S.A. (the operator of the Alexandroupolis LNG Terminal) since January 2021 and a Member of the Board of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG) since January 2022.
KEEP READINGMr. Sifnaios started his professional career at Mobil Oil Hellas in 1987 as a Strategic Planning analyst. He continued in several positions within Sales and Marketing reaching the post of Sales Manager for South & Western Greece. He was then transferred to Mobil Oil International in London and Madrid where he assumed posts in supply and trading. In 1997 he moved to BP International, in Brussels, to work on the European restructuring of the company. He returned in Greece as General Commercial Sales Director for BP Greece (2000 – 2002) to then resume his international career within BP’s European supply chain till 2007. From June 2007 to the end of 2021, he worked in Copelouzos Group initially as New Projects Manager, gas sales Commercial Manager and then as Group Energy Director in the sector of Gas. He also managed the development of the Alexandroupolis LNG Terminal Project to its Final Investment Decision.
Since January 2022, when FID was taken on the Alexandroupolis LNG Project, he was appointed Managing Director of Gastrade, the owner and operator of the Terminal.
Mr. Sifnaios graduated from the school of Mathematics and Applied Sciences of the University of Athens having completed a special program on studies, methods and applications of Linear Programming and Network Flows. He went on to work as a research and faculty assistant at Columbia University, New York, U.S. where he received a Master of Science (MSc) in Operational Research and Applied Business Administration.
Mr. Sifnaios was born in Athens in 1960 and originates from the island of Lesvos. He speaks Greek, English, French and Spanish.
KEEP READINGDuring more than 20 years spent in the oil and gas industry Mr. Laszlo Fritsch has gained extensive professional knowledge from various fields of the energy sector. He started his career at Shell Gas Hungary where his professional expertise has been broadened in various positions held in several European countries. Later he joined E.ON Gas Storage as CFO and from 2013 to 2020 he held the position of CEO and Chairman of the Board of Hungarian Gas Storage. In order to gain in-depth knowledge also in the technical operation Mr. Fritsch has successfully completed a reservoir engineering course in Houston. In 2020 he was appointed CEO of MVM CEEnergy (formerly Hungarian Gas Trade), now serves as Deputy CEO. With his extensive knowledge of the energy and natural gas industry, Mr. Fritsch actively contributes to the domestic and international development of the sector as the chairman of the Hydrocarbon Mining Section of the Hungarian Mining Association and a member of the International Gas Union (IGU).
KEEP READINGMr. Sotirios Bravos is the Chief Officer of Commercial Services of DESFA. He has graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with a Diploma in Electrical Engineering and has a demonstrated working experience of over 30 years in the gas industry in Greece, in engineering, operations and commercial sectors. Mr. Bravos is a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE). His mother tongue is Greek, and he is fluent in English.
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